The First Night
by MaybeIfI
Summary: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE. A post-movie one-shot involving Tooth, Jack Frost, cold weather, memories, and Titanic.


Warning you now for MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE END OF THE MOVIE AND BEYOND!

Anyway, this story involves Tooth, Jack, memories, cold weather, and Titanic.

* * *

**The First Night**

Back at North's fortress of wonder, a party was soon to begin. No one could quite believe the enormity of Jack's accomplishment, or the full ramifications of his success. North tried to imagine the future for him as he stood, bashfully, by the Globe glowing bright with the belief of children around the world.

"Soon everyone will know who you are!" North boomed proudly. "You will have story books and statues and songs!"

Jack wrinkled his nose. "Statues?"

"It might be a bit much to get you a designated holiday, but those are not necessary!" North continued blithely, pouring himself a large mug of hot cocoa. "Sandy and Tooth have no holiday, and they get on fine!"

Jack frowned. "Statues…"

Sandy sent up a whirl of sand, making a ticking clock in the air.

"Yes, yes, it will take time!" North agreed. "These things don't happen overnight. But for now, we celebrate! Jack?"

Jack was gone.

North's face drooped. "Jack?"

The Guardians looked about the room, but Jack was gone. Sandy shifted the clock into a compass and set in spinning in puzzlement.

"Probably he went home," Tooth eventually suggested.

North looked crushed. "But we were going to celebrate!"

"I don't think he meant it like that," Tooth cooed. "He just…you know what he does. He has a thought, and poof! He follows it! He probably didn't even stop to think that he was leaving the party."

"Careless of him," Bunnymund sniffed.

Tooth smiled as patiently as she could manage. "He's been on his own for a very long time. I don't think he's used to checking in with other people yet. And I don't think anyone has ever had a party for him before," She added pointedly.

North took a deep swig from his cocoa. "So now what?"

Tooth fluttered her wings. "I'll go get him."

Bunnymund sighed. "I'll go too-"

"No!"

Tooth clapped a hand over her mouth. She hadn't meant to yell.

"I don't think that's a good idea," She said slowly. "It's better if I go alone. Jack knows I'm nice. When he sees you, he gets ready to bolt. You always yell at him."

She avoided Sandy's crafty, knowing look.

Bunnymund looked hurt. "I don't _always_ yell."

"But that's what _he_ thinks," Tooth said quickly. "I'll go get him, and bring him back, and you can show him that he's wrong."

Bunnymund looked like he was going to protest, but North put a placating hand on his shoulder.

When Tooth left, Bunnymund cried, "What was that about? She's nice and I'm not? What is this?"

"Haven't you noticed?" North said softly. "She wants to be alone with him."

"What? Why?"

Sandy and North exchanged a knowing look.

* * *

Tooth found Jack Frost standing in front of the statue of Thaddeus Burgess and his family. She crept up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, slipping her hands into his sweater pocket.

"Don't mind me," she twittered gently. "I'm just looking for my fairy."

"She flew home, I think," said Jack, sounding amused.

Tooth left her hands in his pocket, and he didn't pull away. She rested her chin on his shoulder. "We were wondering where you went?"

"Really? Why?"

Tooth laughed softly. "Jack, we were going to celebrate you becoming a Guardian!"

She felt the shift in his posture, the nervous, guilty hunch of his shoulders. "You were? I-I'm sorry, I just had a thought-"

"And poof! You followed it!" Tooth grinned. "That's what I like about you." She looked up at the statue. "Who's that?"

"That's Thaddeus Burgess," Jack slipped his hands inside his pocket to press them over Tooth's. They were cold, but she didn't pull away. "I think that's my dad."

He sounded wistful, and proud. Tooth licked her lips. "He's…very handsome?"

Jack laughed. "Nah, this statue doesn't look much like him."

"And is the woman your mother?"

Jack nodded. "And there's my sister, and me on the other side, do you see?"

Tooth glanced up and tried to think of what to say. "That's a…very young version of you."

"Yeah," Pain crept into Jack's voice. "I've been climbing on this statue for _years_, and I had no idea who they were."

"Funny how your gut always leads you home, right?" Tooth tried to smile, but Jack didn't seem to be listening.

"I feel like I've been stomping on their graves."

Tooth squeezed his waist gently. "I bet they enjoyed seeing you, watching you have fun."

A solid gust of icy wind buffeted them as Jack sighed. "Maybe." Tooth felt him rubbing her hands with icy fingers. "Tooth, I was wondering-"

"The answer is no, Jack," She said as firmly as she could without feeling cruel. "No, you may not look at your sister's teeth."

She held her breath as she waited for his reaction. Jack from before, Jack from two weeks ago, would fly away with a second glance back. Tooth took every ounce of comfort she could when all Jack did was slip away his fingers.

"I just want to know if it turned out alright for her."

"Probably it did," she said gently. "It was a long time ago. Don't worry about it."

"Bunnymund and North have seen each other's memories," Jack muttered accusingly.

"I know and they've been ridiculous about it ever since. That's why I came up with the rule."

Jack had finally had enough; he shrugged out of Tooth's embrace. The temperature around them began to drop. "Well, that's convenient."

Tooth smiled and tried not to hold it against him. "Jack, they were there to give each other permission to see those memories. Your family-"

"Yeah, okay, fine," Jack snapped, and began to walk away.

Tooth narrowed her eyes as the air became colder and colder. "Jack, I'm sorry, but your family is not here. I'm not going to let you live in the past! You know who you are, _now_." An icy blast blew between them, and Tooth shivered. "The worst thing you can do is get obsessed with a bunch of old memories!"

Jack's voice was as bitter as the wind. "Getting too cold for you?"

"Jack, I'm sorry, but your family isn't here anymore! But me! The Guardians! We're here for you_! I'm_ here for you!"

He was walking further and further away, the constant wind obscuring him from her vision. Tooth screwed up her face in determination and lunged through the airstream to grab Jack's hand. She tugged him around, hard, to face her.

"I'm not leaving you alone out here to sulk," She said, squeezing his hand hard. "I'll never let go, Jack."

Jack gaped at her in shock, and for a moment Tooth was afraid that she had taken it all too far, too quickly. She should have waited to talk to Jack privately until he had become used to being a Guardian. She should have kept him from asking about his family until he had time to properly absorb what had happened. She should have bitten her stupid tongue before flinging her feelings at him, three days after they had met.

Then somehow, inexplicably, the cold dissipated, and Jack began to laugh.

Tooth glared at him, puzzled and hurt. "I mean it! I'll never let go! Why are you laughing?"

Jack wiped his eyes. "Tooth, you _really_ haven't been out in the field in a long time!"

Tooth bristled at that. "Yeah, I've been busy. No need to rub it in."

Jack shook his head and smiled. "There's something I've _got_ to show you…"

* * *

Bunnymund hiccupped as he downed his fifth mug of eggnog. "Well, I think it's sha-safe to say the party's a bust."

North groaned and held his belly. "We can have another party…another day…with another stomach…"

Sandy sent lazy, looping spirals of sand sailing up into the air and around the room. The three Guardians watched the coils drift by as they tried not to think about their impending cases of indigestion.

There was something like a giggle, or maybe a howl, on the wind, and suddenly Tooth and Jack came crashing through the window.

"THAT WAS A _TERRIBLE_ MOVIE!" Tooth wailed hysterically. "You said it was going to be funny!"

Jack skittered to a halt on the stone floor, laughing too hard to stand up straight. "Your face! Your face when she said the line-!"

"Everybody died and the music was terrible!"

"I know! We have to watch it again!"

They held hands tightly.

"Welcome back," North said muzzily.

The mirth dropped from Jack's face and he glanced about the room guiltily. "Hi. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to run off. I didn't know we were having a party. I just, I had a thought-"

"And poof! You followed it," said Bunnymund, echoing Tooth's cadence lazily. He caught Jack's eye and shrugged gently. "Well…never mind. We can have another party. There's lots of time for that now."

Jack nodded sheepishly, looking grateful. Tooth threw Bunnymund an approving look, and he shrugged again.

North and Sandy exchanged a look of their own. "Did you two have a good time?" North asked them.

Tooth scowled. "No!" She caught Jack's eye and giggled. "Yes. But next time I get to pick the movie."

Bunnymund snorted. "What, was this a date or something?"

Tooth exclaimed "No!" as Jack mumbled something like, "Yeah, I guess." She gaped at him in shock.

Jack raised an eyebrow at Tooth. "I mean, it doesn't have to have been a date if you don't want-"

"OF COURSE IT WAS A DATE!" Tooth blurted, panicking. "Why wouldn't it be a date? It can be a date if we want it to be!"

Even as they bickered, North and Bunnymund were drifting off to sleep, dropping their empty mugs on the ground. Sandy sent a gust of dreamsand at the younger pair, making them drowsy and warm. Jack and Tooth found themselves sitting on the stone floor of North's workshop. They were still holding hands.

Jack nudged Tooth playfully and mimicked at her, "I'll never let go."

Tooth squeezed his hand and let herself collapse against him. "I _won't_."


End file.
